news from food democracy now

This is one of the most important emails that we will ever send. We’ve been hearing rumors about this for months, but Monsanto and the GMA have made their move.

Two days ago, Food Democracy Now! received an unpublished copy of Monsanto and the Grocery Manufacturers Association’s (GMA) secret plan to try to sneak in a toothless piece of legislation that would eliminate federal mandatory GMO labeling, give the illusion of serious regulation, usurp states’ rights to pass similar bills and call for “voluntary” labeling of GMOs based on fraudulent criteria.

The 5-page document details the 7 main provisions of the proposed bill and contains 3 pages of Monsanto and GMA talking points that outline their secret plan to undermine states’ rights, subverting both democracy and the will of the people, 90% of whom support GMO labeling.

This plan is so devious that it radically speeds up the approval process for new GMO crops, limits the FDA and USDA’s ability to extend premarket safety reviews,declares GMO foods “safe” and redefines genetically engineered foods as “bioengineered” in order to sanitize this deeply flawed technology to the American public. Make no mistake about it, this is an outrageous powergrab to deny Americans their basic right to GMO labeling and protect flawed GMO products – and we can’t allow them to get away with it.

This proposal is much more dangerous to our basic rights to know what’s in our food than the Monsanto Protection Act and will enshrine the false idea that GMOs are proven safe in federal legislation.

This past fall, Food Democracy Now! warned that Congressman Fred Upton (R-MI) planned to sneak in a bill to preempt states’ rights to label GMOs, but this proposed bill is much worse than we imaged. After 20,000 phone calls from Food Democracy Now! members like you, his office caved, but now they’re back!

Will Congress and the FDA Succeed in Killing GMO Labeling? Only if we let them!

If allowed to pass, the current proposal “would create a uniform, national program” to outlaw any state labeling bill and render federal legislation on GMO labeling meaningless.

According to an outline of the proposal, published in Politico earlier this week, this proposed bill only requires a federal GMO “label on any products” from GMO plants “if those ingredients present a health or safety risk.” Something the U.S. government has refused to admit for more than 20 years! Think they’re going to start telling the truth about GMOs now?

At the same time, the proposal calls for the creation of a “national standard for voluntary labels” and would allow the FDA to define “natural” as containing genetically engineered ingredients (GMOs). Monsanto’s and the GMA’s new secret plan would also create a federal voluntary labelto say “GMO-Free”, something no individuals are asking for, but some companies want to be able to use it to deceive the American public.

The real lynchpin of Monsanto’s Secret Federal Preemption Proposal is buried in Section 103, which states:

“The provision would also authorize the FDA to develop regulations for the voluntary labeling of the presence of bioengineered ingredients in food products…Under the mandatory program, FDA would have the authority to mandate special labeling to address any material difference that could affect health and safety or cause consumer deception.”

The fact is that Monsanto and the GMA are reeling from having spent more than $70 million in the past 2 years to kill GMO labeling in ballot initiatives in California and Washington only to narrowly defeat us by 49 to 51% after running some of the most deceptive political ad campaigns in modern history.

In reality, the GMO labeling movement has already succeeded in passing GMO labeling bills in Connecticut and Maine last year and with more than 25 GMO labeling bills in state legislatures across the country, Monsanto and giant food companies are in a panic.

Right now we have Monsanto and friends on the run, but the past several months have seen a major ramping up of their propaganda in the mainstream press.

You are now on the frontline to defend against the massive abusive of corporate power and collusion with our elected officials. We can’t allow this outrageus plan to preempt states’ rights and kill GMO labeling to succeed. Please stand with us today!

Right now is the critical window where we need to stand together to stop Monsanto and these corrupt corporations from trying to betray our basic democratic rights once again.